Parade of Homes (and Master Bedroom Reveal!)

I am so excited to be participating in a blog Parade of Homes sponsored by Poppies at Play!

For those of you who are visiting my blog for the very first time, let me introduce myself.

My name is Traci, and I am a stay-at-home mom of four boys. I am married to a wonderful man who loves the same things in life that I do. We love sharing in this adventure called “life.”

I was an elementary teacher for 6 years before my first son was born, and it is hard to believe I have been at home with my boys for the past ten years. What a blessing!

I started my blog in March of last year after my mom kept encouraging me to. I am so glad she did. It has been a huge blessing in my life! My blog is dedicated to my mom who passed away in September of last year after a short battle with gastric cancer. Her love and her faith in God has changed my life forever. (You can read about her story by clicking on “mom” in my sidebar.)

Over the past year, I have been fixing up my house one room at a time. I just recently finished our master bedroom, and I am so excited to reveal it today!

I am not an interior decorator. I have no degree in design. I have just used the inspiration I have found in blogland this past year to decorate my home. :)

So welcome everyone to my

ol’ Kentucky home!

I like to call my home the “House of Thrifty Finds.” Almost everything in my house is from Goodwill, garage sales, or hand-me-downs. I will point my thrifty treasures out to you throughout the tour.

As you enter our home, you will see this vinyl saying that my Mom helped me put up last August.

Directly down the foyer is our kitchen and eating area.

I purchased the hutch for $75.00 at a garage sale and painted it black. You can read about that project HERE.

The white buffet on the left side of the picture below is a $55.00 find at Goodwill that I painted. You can read about that project HERE.

I love this view of my curtains through the mirror. I made the curtains from drop cloths, and I absolutely love the way they turned out. If you want to see how I made them, just click on “drop cloth projects” in my sidebar.

Our biggest renovation in our home has been the kitchen. Last fall, we tore out the soffit above our cabinets and created new, taller cabinets. You can see the complete DIY renovation by clicking HERE.

I love the glass cabinet doors and the open shelving my husband created above the microwave.

The bead board cabinet doors added to the cottage style I was striving for.

We also installed recessed lighting inside the glass cabinets and underneath the cabinets. You can never have enough light in the kitchen!

On the right side of the kitchen, I made some cafe shelves like the ones I saw in Ballard Designs catalog. You can see the tutorial of how to make them for yourself HERE.

Our master bedroom is right off of our kitchen. I have been working on our bedroom for a couple of months now, and I am so excited to finally share the finished product.

I renovated our entire bedroom for less than $700.00, and I will be sharing a ton of Before and After photos, plus the break down of my budget, tomorrow. You won’t believe the difference, so be sure to stop back by and check it out!

Here is the view as you enter the room…

The bed was my parents, and I painted it black. I made the brown bedskirt from burlap, and I think it turned out beautifully.

I was so excited when I found this little vanity for only $25.oo! It fits perfectly beside my bed. It just needed a little TLC which you can read about HERE.

I have enjoyed accessorizing with items that are special to me, like the picture of my mom and me when I was a little girl and a decorative bird that was my mom’s.

The chandelier was my “splurge” for my room. I got it at Lowe’s and I love the way it adds a little romance to the room.

This black dresser was purchased at an antique mall, and I painted it black as well. (Can you tell I like that color?) :)

Here’s the view of the other side of the room.

I got the armoire for $40.00 at a habitat store! It needed a little work (like it was missing a back), but it works perfectly for our room now. Our tv hides in there! Click HERE to see that project.

Our master bath is really small, but can you believe it was actually smaller?! We renovated it a couple of years ago by knocking out a wall and making it a little bigger.

My husband did all the work in our bathroom. He is quite the DIY man!

One of my favorite “rooms” in our home is our covered back patio.

I love watching my boys play in the back yard and enjoying lots of cookouts with friends and family out here. Those are some of life’s sweetest moments!

See that red door in the background of the below picture?

That door leads to the guest house we built over our detached garage.

My husband built our guest house, and I got to decorate it. A winning combination!

We didn’t really have any money to decorate the guest house, so I had a ball shopping at Goodwill and garage sales. I am one of those people who think it is FUN to decorate with thrifty finds!

My hubby built me these amazing cabinets! If you want to see how he made them, click on “cottage cabinets” in my side bar labels.

I got this cute little coffee table at Goodwill for $6.50 and painted it white. It fits perfectly with the room. I also got the chair for $6.50 at Goodwill and covered it with burlap.

If you would like a complete tour of our guest house including the bedroom and bathroom, click HERE.

Well, that concludes my tour!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed your visit.

The next house on the Parade of Homes tour is Beth from Stories from A to Z. Her house is beautiful and so is she…inside and out!

Just click on the #3 button below, and it will take you there.

Enjoy the Parade!

Have a blessed day!

Traci

Cottage Guest House Tour

If you want to enter to win a $40.00 stamped jewelry giveaway,

click HERE! (Giveaway ended 1-29-10)

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I wanted to share with you how far we have come on our guest house. I am still not finished with some of the decorating details, like curtains and such, but we’ve come a long way, baby!

I have also added to this post 6 links to some of my favorite DIY projects that I completed for the guest house. Be sure to check those out as well.

This is our detached garage that we built about 4 years ago. We built it with the intentions of turning the top part into a guest house.

The red door takes you into the garage. Directly inside you will see our black “school house” door that leads to the guest house. We got this door at a Habitat store for ten bucks! It was solid wood and had a glass pane missing. So my husband installed a new piece of glass, painted it black, and added hardware. I love it.

The picture below is a “before” shot of the steps. We used pine for the stair treads and white bead board for the stair risers. We stained the steps a “Provencial” stain from Minwax.

Here’s the “after” shot of the steps…

We used some tile we had left over from the guest house bathroom to make the entry way.

The next two pictures show the “before” picture of the hard wood floors. The floors are made of 9 inch New England pine, tongue and groove, wood planks from Lumber Liquidators. We used the “Provencial” stain from Minwax again. My wonderful father-in-law helped my husband build this beautiful black bannister and also installed our hard wood floors. Thanks, Pop!

The right side of the room is where we planned to put the den.

Here’s the “after”…

This is the left side of the room where we wanted to install the kitchen.

My husband built some cottage style open cabinets…

He also made me a plate rack which I love! Then we painted the whole thing black.

We added corbels underneath the black cabinets. The white cabinets on the bottom were old cabinets we had leftover from our old kitchen island in our house.

I wanted some shelves on the side of the sink for baskets, so my handy hubby built some.

The picture below shows the baskets we added to the shelves and the cottage style doors that my husband made as well. We got the sink at a Habitat store for $7.00! It’s perfect!

My husband also tiled the countertop. It turned out fabulous! The backsplash is travertine tile that we got at the Habitat Store for a few dollars. The larger tile we got at The Tile Shop. The black hardware is from Lowe’s.

Then I added my white dishes that I got mostly from Goodwill.

The chairs for the kitchen table were a Goodwill re-do too. You can read about them HERE.

And I made the burlap tablecloth, and you can read about the tutorial HERE.

The light we added in the kitchen is from Lowe’s. We purchased a the black fan without a light because we couldn’t find a black fan that I liked. I wanted the old school house look. We found a light kit at Lowe’s with the old school house globe that we attached to it. It’s exactly what I wanted!

The picture below is the “before shot” of the opposite side of the room.

Here it is now…

I got the little chair from Goodwill for $6.50 and recovered it in burlap. You can read about that project HERE.

The white coffee table was also purchased at Goodwill for $6.50, and I painted it white. You can read about that HERE.

The couch still needs to be slipcovered. I am working on that! :) I got it at Goodwill for only 25 dollars. Right now I just have it covered with a white matelesse.

The next picture shows the door leading into our guest bedroom. We got that door from my sweet sister-in-law when she was re-doing her home. It was a green color, so we painted it white and added a oil-rubbed bronze door knob.

The next picture is a “before” shot of the guest bedroom. (We still had the kitchen cabinets in the room at this point.)

Here it is now…

I am hoping I can find a cute little desk to put under that window. I would like to paint it black and distress it.

The furniture in this room used to be natural wood, and I painted it white. You can read about that project HERE.

The white dust ruffle was a $2.50 purchase from where else but GW.

The chandelier was given to me by my mom. It used to be silver, and I painted it black.

Here is the “before” picture of the bathroom…

I haven’t done much in this room except to make a unique headboard towel holder. You can read about that project HERE.

This is the armoire that I painted white. It sits right outside the bathroom and stores towels and blankets. I got the wire locker basket at a yard sale for $5.00. I am on the look out for some more!

Well, that’s it!

I didn’t show you the laundry room because I still have a lot to do in there.

My goals for the guest house are:

1) Make shelf for laundry room.

2) Make shower curtain for bathroom.

3) Find mirror for bathroom.

4) Create curtains for each window.

5) Slipcover couch.

I am taking my time on the above list because I have some pressing projects that I need to get done over in our house!

Thanks for taking my little “Guest House Tour”. I hope you enjoyed it!

I will be linking this post to:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch,

Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Saturday Night Live at Funky Junk Interiors

Have a Blessed Week!